War-weary refugees tell their stories

Bombs fall. Buildings explode. People die. The war in Syria is a seemingly endless cycle of death and destruction. Yet behind the numbing statistics and finger-pointing headlines are real people—men, women, and children whose voices are seldom heard. Millions of them have fled their homeland in a desperate attempt to survive.

This book is a collection of Syrian refugee stories, an attempt to give a voice to ordinary people whose lives have been shattered and who long for peace. These stories are told in the context of the author's trip to the Middle East, a trip where she experienced Middle Eastern culture for the first time as she listened to brokenhearted Syrians who had fled to Lebanon and Jordan. Hear their stories. Listen to the voices of Syria.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• Maps

Preparation

• 1. "I love Damascus."
• 2. Welcome to Lebanon
• Syria
• The Uprising
• The Opposition

Voices of the Bekaa

• 3. "God has watched over us."
• 4. "This crisis brought us to despair."
• The System
• 5. "We were walking with death."
• 6. "We want to go back."

Voices of Lebanon

• 7. "Refugees are the most resilient people."
• Syrian Troops in Lebanon
• 8. "He sees the whole picture."
• 9. At the Warehouse

Voices of Homs

• Homs
• Tribal Politics
• 10. "The most precious thing we left was peace."
• Bab al-Amr
• 11. "I don't know how I got the bullets."
• 12. "We just need a little bit of news."
• 13. "He went back to Syria."

Voices by the Mediterranean

• 14. "We are going to teach about Jesus."
• 15. "You have to show them love."
• 16. "We bribed the person at the checkpoint."
• Christians in the Middle East
• Refugee Perspectives
• 17. "Our hearts are swollen."
• 18. "Everyone is wearing black."
• 19. "I want to be invested for Jesus."
• 20. "We kept on paying ransoms for a whole year."
• 21. "The people were dying in front of us."

Voices from Hama

• Hama
• Authoritarianism
• 22. "They started dying and dying."
• 23. "Don't come!"

Voices from Aleppo

• Aleppo
• 24. "I put my children in the well."
• Islam
• 25. "I love these people more than my life."
• 26. Introduction to Jordan
• 27. "They kill them one by one."
• 28. "Take off your shoes before stepping on Aleppo."
• 29. "Even the wiring was taken out."

Voices of Jordan

• 30. "It's His work, not ours."
• 31. "They want to write a check and then forget."
• 32. "It's a way to ignore Jesus' blood."
• 33. "I like to be downstairs and sit with people."

Voices from Across Syria

• 34. "There was so much light."
• 35. "The worst night I have ever lived through."
• 36. "No one could leave the house."
• 37. "Jesus Christ gave me the strength to forgive."

Voices from Damascus

• Damascus
• 38. "The war is complicated."
• 39. "If we laugh, it's not from our hearts."
• 40. "God will be with us wherever we go."
• 41. "It's such a pity to end like this."
• Voices from the Mosques
• 42. "Some people died of hunger."

Voices from Daraa

• Daraa
• 43. "I just want peace."
• 44. "Death was surrounding us."
• 45. "If you were in my place at that time."
• The Last Hospital in Daraa
• 46. "I don't know who was asking for freedom."
• 47. "We are suffering in Zaatari."
• 48. "We'll die in our country."

Reflecting on the Voices

• 49. Crossing the Jordan River
• 50. The City of David
• 51. Gethsemane
• 52. Not Quite a Refugee

• Epilogue
• Endnotes
• About the Author